Monday morning. English 154： Introduction to Fairytales. Why， oh why， did I 1)sign up for this class？ Just because I spent most of my childhood reading and re-enacting them does not make me an expert—or at least that’s our professor’s opinion. At the moment he’s 2)droning on and on about the lessons that fairytales are meant to 3)impart. It seems silly at first， but as his voice begins to 4)coax my eyelids closed， my mind starts to remember…
We were kids， me and Ben， my best friend in the universe. Our moms had been baking all day， and even though Ben and I had been good all day， neither of them would let us 5)sample anything！ It was unjust！ 6)Outrageous！ So， we were running away to a place where mothers were not so mean to their children， and good kids (like us) were able to have pie and cake and cookies whenever they wanted.
Like most kids who run away， we thought of the forest first. We walked down to City Park， which was right next to the larger national park—a perfect place to get lost and stay lost. Pretty soon， though， we were exactly that： lost. But there！ On the path ahead！ A small house. We rushed up to the house， eager to explore.
And what a house！ It was painted like a7)gingerbread castle at Christmas. We began to8)drool just looking at it. Then we realized that it wasn’t just our eyes making us drool， it was our noses too. Where was that delicious smell coming from？
From out of the house stepped a little old woman， cookies held in front of her like an9)edible 10)welcome mat. She took one look at us and invited us in for snacks. Now this was more like it—this was how good kids like us should have been treated. In we went. And oh what a wonderful place！ Pies， cookies， cakes， breads， everything you could think of， she had it. We were in heaven！ She excused herself to go 11)wash up.
That’s when Ben stopped. He had been looking around in a curious way， and now he looked horror-stricken.
“Kate，” he whispered， “why does this woman have so much food？”